Not My Life is the first film to comprehensively depict the cruel and dehumanizing practices of human trafficking and modern slavery on a global scale. Filmed on five continents, in a dozen countries, Not My Life takes viewers into a world where millions of children are exploited, every day, through an astonishing array of practices including forced labor, domestic servitude, begging, sex tourism, sexual exploitation, and child soldiering.
Challenging though it may be, Not My Life's message is ultimately one of hope. Victims of slavery can be set free and go on to live extraordinary lives. Those who advocate for them are growing in numbers, and increasingly effective. At this crossroad for the defining human rights issue of our time, Not My Life tells us that the choice between good and evil is, quite simply, ours.Not My Life zeroes in on the fact that the vast majority of trafficking and slavery victims
are indeed children. This fundamental truth, says the film's director, Robert Bilheimer, raises profound questions about the very nature of our civilization. "What kind of society cannibalizes its own children?" Bilheimer asks. "Can we do these sorts of things on such a large scale and still call ourselves human in any meaningful sense of the term?"Not My Life features dignified and inspiring testimony from survivors; depictions of trafficking, exploitation, and slavery in all parts of the world, including forced labor in Africa; street begging and garbage picking in India; sexual trafficking in the United States and Southeast Asia; and various forms of child enslavement and abuse in both North and South America. Not My Life was filmed in North and South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa